


Under the Dark Mark

by fansarewaiting



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Death Eaters, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Minor Character Death, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Second War with Voldemort, Wartime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25143574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fansarewaiting/pseuds/fansarewaiting
Summary: Respected war leader Hermione Granger lets a new recruit join the Order's camp, a deserter from the Dark side. Will he grow to be more than the hateful boy from her youth? How does he grow past his prejudices and traumatic memories from being under the Dark Lord's thumb? They will band together to fight for the Light side and win the Second Wizarding War, after many trials and errors. They come to love each other in a way that only they can, magically and luminescently.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas
Kudos: 6





	Under the Dark Mark

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first piece of writing for the hp fandom, please leave a comment if you have any feedback!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco appears in a forest alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of this Dramione HEA Wartime AU WIP for HogwartsOnline's Dialogue OWLs! incorporating the line "It's really not that complicated."

Draco Malfoy apparated into the dark clearing with a sharp crack, fearful of someone hearing him but knowing he would be discovered soon anyway. Moonlight shone down on his white-blond hair and revealed his disheveled and desperate-looking state. He was going on a week of barely any sleep, and his appearance and mind were suffering for it. He was physically exhausted, but even more exhausted of fearing for his life and humanity every moment of every day for coming on three years since the War had started.

He let out a breath, relieved to have finally escaped the altercation at Lestrange Manor, leaving many Death Eaters behind, but very nervous about what he would find here in this new place where he could hope to be safe. He had only been to this forest once before, but he knew others would be stationed here in this area. He was glad he wasn’t splinched upon arrival from possible anti-apparition wards. He had no idea what kind of security to expect from these people, they were an entirely different sort than who he was used to dealing with. He hoped that they would come find and retrieve him, because he doubted he would be able to just stumble upon wherever they specifically were hidden from prying Muggle and magical eyes. It was a standard these days for any encampment to be protected with illusions and repelling charms.

So that’s what he did, traipsed around in the woods, making enough noises to send birds flying and underbrush rustling. Not even twenty minutes later did he look up from his preoccupied thoughts to see shadowy figures surrounding and approaching him. He raised his empty hands in peace, squinting into the light from their wands, unable to see any of their faces to recognize a single one of them. Hoping he wouldn’t be jinxed on sight, he spoke clearly into the night, “I’m alone. I come in peace, and I seek refuge.”

—

Dean Thomas hurried through the camp of the Order of the Phoenix’s Resistance movement towards the commanders' cabins. While he was on duty that night, watching the perimeter of their headquarters, a commotion had happened with the night guard and bringing someone new to camp. He was going to alert his commanding officer, Hermione Granger. As he moved through the camp, he noted how quiet all the wood and stone buildings were. The Order had been using this as a base for over a year now, and they were all fairly comfortably settled in, using it as headquarters and home to many uprooted witches and wizards. He cast his mind back, remembering how they had found it.

Dean and Luna had come upon this camp during the winter in late 1998, vacant of visitors. Usually, it was a summer camp for Muggle children, who would come for weeks and be engaged in outdoor activities, arts and crafts, sports, and swimming, all guided by camp counselors. That November, it was empty. There had been a confrontation in the surrounding woods with a few Death Eaters, some Snatchers, and Dean Thomas and Luna Lovegood.

After Griphook, Ollivander, Dean, and Luna had escaped their imprisonment at Malfoy Manor to Shell Cottage, they had gone into hiding under the Order’s protection. After settling Ollivander in an Order safehouse, Dean and Luna had teamed up to search for more survivors and Muggleborns on the run, hoping to find and help them in any way they could. After some months into their task of trying to relocate wizards and their families to safehouses that the Order had set up, they came upon Muggleborn Justin Finch-Fletchley and his family seeking shelter in this empty Kings camp that Justin had attended in his youth, in the Lake District. They had happened upon the Finch-Fletchley’s just in time. As they were greeting each other in the woods near the camp, Death Eaters and Snatchers descended on them all, causing panic and snatching up hostages.

The Death Eaters had tracked them for the past couple of Muggle-traveled miles and came out when they had stopped to rest in the cold, surrounding them. Almost before Dean and Luna had processed they were in an ambush, members of Justin’s rather large family were in the rough grips of those who Snatched for the bounty. Justin’s mother was over to Dean’s left, and Dean immediately lunged for the man holding onto her, brandishing his wand with a Stunning Spell, “Stupefy!” The spell hit him on the shoulder and the Snatcher went down, as Dean reached them, steadying Mrs. Finch-Fletchley back on her feet.

Justin’s father was physically fighting a Snatcher whose wand had been knocked from him by Luna, who was duelling a Death Eater in front of a brightly painted building on their right. There were two other Snatchers, and one other Death Eater, who was currently pulling Justin away from the fray back towards the bare forest. Both of the other Snatchers had hold of three younger children who were presumably Justin’s brother and sisters. They were moving backward closer towards the camp’s buildings, dragging their feet on the frosted ground. Dean battled back and forth with them, kicking up dead leaves and snow flurries, until the two men were caught up in enchanted ropes and the kids safely behind Dean. He saw Luna was battling the Death Eater and holding her own, even though he seemed to be more skilled than her. He noticed that Justin’s father had knocked out the Snatcher who had been fighting with him, and he lay on the ground, out cold. He pointed Mr. Finch-Fletchley back towards his children, as he started running to where Justin was currently being tied up by the other Death Eater near the treeline. He couldn’t see where Justin’s wand had gone, but he didn’t look injured either.

Dean knew he was out of his depth, but he also knew he had to get Justin out of there, before he could be taken back to the Ministry, or even to one of the Death Eater strongholds, wherever those were. “Let him go!” Dean yelled at the Death Eater, as he sent a Stupefy towards him. The Death Eater was too fast, and had a counter spell ready, blocking it in the air before it reached him.

“I can’t do that,” the Death Eater replied, and Dean was shocked that he recognized the tense voice. As he got closer, he peered into the holes of the mask, and saw the gray eyes of Draco Malfoy. He almost skidded to a halt in the snow, but kept his feet going and closer to where he could help Justin.

Draco Malfoy, in his dark Death Eater robes and mask, spun to face Dean and whipped out an Expelliarmus charm at him, which missed when Dean dodged to the right. They battled each other, flinging spells and curses back and forth while weaving between the bare trees. Dean circled back around to where Justin was and untied him, as Malfoy rounded a thicket and came back to them. He saw Justin was freed again and advanced on them warily. Justin still didn’t have a wand, but was at least holding his ground and currently glaring at Malfoy.

A crashing sound from across the camp interrupted the three young men and directed their attention back to where Luna had been battling the other Death Eater. A flurry of snow dispersed and in the place where Dean had last seen them emerged Luna amid the splintered remains of the rainbow painted wall. The other Death Eater was no longer on his feet. Small fires and smoke shone through the haze. The wood building that looked like it had been a main gathering space for the camp was destroyed. Luna quickly approached the boys standing off to each other. When Draco sized them up and saw it would be three against one, with none of his allies in sight, he spun on his foot and disapparated with an echoing crack.

Dean sighed, letting the tension flow out of his body, and looked around, assessing their situation. “Luna, what happened?” he asked her, jogging back towards the burning camp building. The two started putting the fires out with Aguamenti, Justin following along and checking if his family was all right. Thankfully they all were.

“The Death Eater was shooting Incendios at me, so I sent them back at him. Some of the buildings took the damage from him and I, but he missed a few times. Things got heated, and he ended up pinned under that wall there, when it fell down. I don’t think he’s breathing,” she said, sounding as casual as if she was relaying the weather report.

Dean didn’t even skip a beat, used to Luna’s matter-of-fact manner. “We can’t let the children see him. Let’s go, do you still have that Order Portkey on you? We can send him to St. Mungo’s, they’ll deal with the body. We should Obliviate the Snatchers as well, it’s too risky otherwise. We can’t let them know where we are. It’s too bad Malfoy already got away; he knows Justin’s whole family was here.”

They both looked at Justin and his family. Justin had taken a wand from one of the three unconscious Snatchers and was testing it out by binding them together. Once the fires were out, Luna levitated her unconscious Death Eater out from the rubble, and set him on the hard ground behind a wall. She placed one of their few remaining Portkeys on his chest, and he vanished instantaneously. Dean and Luna then set about Obliviating the Snatchers.

“Justin, we’ll be right back. We need to drop these men off far away, so they don’t make their way back here. Hold on, it will take just a couple of seconds,” Dean addressed Justin, as they gripped the three Snatchers between him and Luna. They spun and appeared in a wooded clearing hundreds of miles away. They laid them down, then spun back out, landing in the camp they had left just moments before. The men would wake up soon, with a nasty headache and no memory of their past day, but at least they were all okay otherwise.

“This is a really peaceful camp Justin. What brought you here?” Luna asked Justin, as they crouched down, comforting the young kids.

“This is one of the Kings Camps that I used to come to in the summers when I was a kid. Mum and Dad would drive me here and drop me off, and I always loved spending time with the other kids when I was here. It reminded me of safety, so I brought us all back here, now that we had to leave our house. I thought we’d be safe at home for a long time, but we got invaded last week in the middle of the night. Grandad didn’t make it, but the rest of us got out and have been on the run ever since.” Justin looked at his parents and siblings, glad they were okay this time.

Dean addressed the family, “Justin, Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley, we’re with the Order of the Phoenix. We’d like to offer you and your family protection at one of our safe houses. Would you want to side-along Apparate with Luna and I back to our base?” The Finch-Fletchleys quickly agreed and gathered themselves and their things for the ride. After dropping them off, Dean and Luna returned to scout out the camp.

The camp was situated in the center of a forest, miles out from any towns. The entrance was to the north, where the main gathering building was that had been colorfully painted. There were kitchens and a dining hall in the center of the camp with restrooms nearby. Ten or so large group cabins and a few more smaller counselors’ cabins were grouped around on the south side. Fields for games and sports were to the west, and to the east were some administrative and facility buildings. It was like a self-contained town, all built from simple sturdy wood and stone bases. It was the perfect place for them to establish a new headquarters for the Order.

—

On this summery night, Hermione had been summoned by Dean Thomas, alerted that something was going on in the forest outside their camp. Her combat boots clanged as she came down the wooden steps of her cabin. Following behind Dean, she hurried over to the scene, her face set sternly, and her usually big bushy hair tied back in a bun. Hermione had done a lot of growing over the past two years since she and Harry and Ron had fled from Bill and Fleur’s crashed wedding. If the Dark Lord hadn’t come back, she would have been a year out of school and working somewhere in the Wizarding World. As it was, her future, and that of so many others, were put on hold, so they could fight this dark reign of tyranny. Being an integral part of the leadership of the resistance, Hermione had grown harder and more ruthless, single-minded in her determination to push back and win this war. People knew when to stay out of her way, but they also trusted her decision-making, and respected the woman behind the nickname “brightest witch of her age.” She was privy to all of the planning and discussions in the war room of the counselors cabin, along with both Harry and Ron.

She got to the entrance of the camp, where the commotion seemed to have arrived. She found the gathering of her night guard, surrounding a person who seemed to have all of their attention. They must have found somebody out there. It wasn’t one of theirs, they were all accounted for. Who could it be? She approached the group of six or so wizards, and drew astride Dean’s shoulder, who had rejoined the loose circle. They all had their wands out, looking distrustfully at the person of interest, though it did not seem to be a threat at present. When she reached the group, she could see who they were looking at.

The wandlight of their Lumos charms fell upon the haggard face of Draco Malfoy.

—

There were few times when Hermione Granger couldn’t find words, and this was one of them. Seeing the face of her childhood bully after all these years struck her speechless. It had been two years since she had escaped from his family’s Manor after being tortured by his insane aunt Bellatrix. She hadn’t given much thought to him since then, at least in the waking hours. That scene haunted her nightmares, but she always buried them under her day’s worries and duties, so she could focus on the war at present. His pale visage in her eyesight in the dark elicited that feeling of panic bubbling up under her carefully constructed walls; she froze and stared at him, taking in his full appearance and hesitant stance.

“We found him blundering around in the woods. He surrendered himself immediately upon us finding him, but we don’t know why he’s here or if we can trust what he’s saying,” Seamus spoke from behind Draco, his wand trained on him.

“The last time he was here, he attacked me and Luna!” Dean exclaimed. “We should be tying him up. Where’s his wand?”

“I never told anybody you were here,” Draco spoke up indignantly.

“Silence! You cannot prove that. But he did give us his wand, here it is,” another of the guard said, handing over the wand Draco had been using, which had been his mother’s. Harry had wrenched his own out of his hand when the trio had escaped Malfoy Manor a year prior.

“What are you doing here Malfoy? Does someone know where you are?” Hermione found her words and questioned him, her voice ringing out over the group.

“I’ve deserted the Death Eaters, no one know where I’ve gone. Just that I deserted them during a battle at the Lestrange Manor. I had been wanting to leave for a long time, but tonight was my opportunity. I don’t have anything else with me, I didn’t talk to anyone before leaving. They might even think I’m lost,” Malfoy ground the words out, his hoarse voice betraying his exhaustion. His black robes showed signs of a struggle, seeming to corroborate that statement.

With that declaration, the group broke out into muttering and arguing. Hermione observed how worn and haunted Malfoy looked. He stood straight and tall, but his shoulders stooped and she could see purple bags under his eyes. His usually slicked back hair was shaggy and loose around his head. His ghostly pale skin looked sallow, and he was thinner than all the other wizards of his similar age around him. He did not look all right, in fact, she was worried he really wasn’t healthy. He didn’t look threatening at all, except his eyes, pale as they were, still took in the whole scene, darting between the wizards, checking to see what conclusions they would come to. Dean inspected the wand that had been handed to him, seeing what previous spells had been cast from it. They were consistent with spells that would be used in Duelling, and no Unforgiveables had been used recently. It showed Draco had Apparated to this forest of his own accord, and alone.

“Why did you leave Malfoy?” Hermione asked him again.

“Well, you see, it’s complicated…” he hedged.

“It’s really not that complicated. Did you renounce their ways? What are you expecting from us? What are you trying to do here?” she shot back, starting to get frustrated at the lack of information that made sense to her.

“I can’t do it anymore. They… It’s not right what they’re doing. There’s no way I can be a part of that, I was drowning,” he answered. That wasn’t what Hermione was looking for, but she was glad he admitted that the Death Eaters were wrong. Malfoy looked like he could fall over at any moment, and she was tired too. She wanted to wrap this up and deal with it in the morning.

“Do you need medical attention? We have some Healers here,” she suggested, trying to buy time to think of what she should do. Ordinarily, deserters seeking refuge here were given a council but Kingsley was away in London and Moody was probably already asleep by now. It was late at night, much of the camp was settled down for the night.

Malfoy answered that he was fine, so she told her guard to go back to their posts, and she planned on taking him to her single counselor’s cabin to keep him there for the night, where she could watch him. The crowd of guards dispersed, and Hermione and Dean escorted Malfoy back to her cabin. The responsibility fell to her to keep an eye on him, because she was the commanding officer on duty that night.

“Someone will be right outside all night, Hermione. Just yell out if he tries anything,” Dean reassured her before he left. She thanked him and locked the door behind him. She transfigured the couch in her room into a bed for Malfoy, and told him to behave. They were both so tired, she didn’t go into her spiel, he looked like he could barely keep his eyes open, and she didn’t feel like repeating herself. So she decided to wait for morning to lay out all the rules for him.

“Go to sleep, Malfoy. We’ll figure out what we’re doing with you in the morning,” she said to him. He nodded then promptly fell into the bed, asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the transfigured pillow. She sighed, looking at him sleeping. This was not what she had expected tonight. She whispered a Nox to snuff out the light, and settled in for the night, checking that a magical containment barrier was safely around Malfoy’s bed, before falling asleep herself.


End file.
